Heartbreak in Johannesburg: Brazil Dashes US’s Dream
In 26th minute in Sunday’s Confederations Cup Final the United States Men’s National team was on top of the world. Landon Donovan had just extended the Americans lead to 2-0 over five-time World Cup Champions Brazil with a truly world class goal. ...Donovan quickly retrieved the ball from Ricardo Clark off a Brazil’s faltered attack, passed a brilliant ball ahead to striker Charlie Davies, ran the course of the field, expertly handled the return pass from Davies, tip toed the ball around the defender, and hammered the goal into Brazil’s net leaving keeper Julio Cesar looking helpless in the net. With Donovan’s goal it appeared that United States was on its way to upsetting its second world power in a row, but in the second half the Americans dream were crushed as Brazil showed its true character scoring three unanswered goals to claim the Confederations Cup for the third time.
After a goal by Luis Fabiano in the opening minutes of the second half you could feel the weight of Brazil begin to fully register on the backs of the Americans. The Green and Yellow then released an onslaught on the American defense similar to the one the US had survived in their historic win over FIFA number one ranked Spain earlier in the week. Unlike in the miracle win over Spain the Americans just didn’t seem to have the legs to withstand barrage after barrage of attacks from the likes of Kaka, Fabiano, and Robinho. US goalie Tim Howard pulled off a few dazzling saves, but eventually found himself at the mercy of Brazil’s sheer talent.
Brazil’s bench consisted of millionaires some of whom didn’t get a sniff of the field throughout the entire tournament. US second half substitute, Sasha Kljestan, makes a humble base salary of $170,000 playing in the MLS, but battled Sunday against Brazil’s Kaka who was just sold to Real Madrid for $92 million. US Soccer fans should stick out their chests with pride as their team almost defeated the world’s two most talented teams in Spain and Brazil in the course of a few days.
The Americans were not satisfied with their surprise run to the final as Donovan told the media after the game, “We’re at the point where we don’t want respect, we want to win. There’s no guarantee that we ever get back to a final game like this so it’s disappointing.”
What we can take from the US’s Confederations Cup is that they will return next year as a team that can compete with the best in the world. It is safe to expect the Americans to advance out of their group stage in World Cup 2010. As we learned from this tournament anything can happen in the game of soccer. This team has found itself in the past two weeks representing the United States above and beyond the call of duty. The US squad may return stateside with broken hearts, but have surely won over the respect of the soccer-loving world.